Adagio Sencha Overtures Green Tea Review
Adagio Teas Sencha Overtures Green Tea is a “second flush” tea. This refers to the time of year when it is harvested – first flush would be spring, while second flush harvesting happens in the summer.
Sencha green tea comes from Japan, and is the most common tea the Japanese consume in their everyday lives. The name means “roasted tea”, although technically the sencha leaves are steamed, as is the Japanese tea-making tradition, rather than roasted. The leaves are grown in full sunlight before being picked in several harvests and carefully sifted and cut to make sure that only the top parts of the leaves and buds are used. Then they're steamed, stopping the oxidization process and giving the sencha that characteristic “seaweedy” vegetal taste of Japanese green tea.
Sencha does tend to have rather more astringency than other teas, which can be difficult for newcomers to green tea to adapt to. The vegatal flavor of sencha is generally described as an acquired taste, but if you can adjust to it, it's an incredibly healthy and pure drink to enjoy. Adagio Teas Sencha Overtures Green Tea is sencha from the famous tea-producing area of Shizuoka. There are two main Sencha categories: premier, and overture. Premier contains sediment not found so much in overture, so overture indicates a slight decrease in quality.
Adagio Teas call this tea a “spider leg” tea, referring to the long and slender shape of the tea leaves used to make it. Be warned – this is a pure green tea! That means it's going to have a stronger flavor than other green teas, as there are no artificial or natural additives to alter the taste. True green tea fans will love it, and there's the pleasant knowledge that you're getting an unadjusted intake of those powerful antioxidants and catechins that pure green tea contains in abundance.
In actual fact, although a pure green tea, this one doesn't have the sometimes overbearing grassy flavor that others do. While it's good to get a natural tea full of green goodness, you don't exactly want it to taste like a mouthful of grass! And Adagio's Sencha Overtures Green Tea doesn't. Actually, although strong, the flavor is surprisingly light, and there's no bitterness. Usually, it's difficult to get a green tea that has both a strong flavor punch and no grassy bitterness – either the tea is strong and grassy, or grassless and weak! This one gets it just right, and the strong taste is very enjoyable.
It's probably best not to try this one if it's your first introduction to green tea – a milder variety might be better to help you grow accustomed to the fresh green flavor. This one could overpower an unsuspecting newcomer, which would be a shame – because a regular green tea drinker is likely to love the full-on flavor, the fresh taste and aroma, and the lack of astringency. Well worth sampling if you're fed up with bland, flavorless teas and want something with a bit of a punch to it. You can buy it online here.
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